'Running Point,' 'Last Breath' and 'Toxic Town': Best and worst new releases, movies and TV, this week

Yahoo

01-03-2025

With the 2025 Oscars right around the corner, if you need a break from Academy Awards picks, there's plenty of new content that was released this week in Canada to watch this weekend. Running Point starring Kate Hudson, Brenda Song and Chet Hanks landed on Netflix, in addition to the series Toxic Town, with The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood.
On the movie front, Last Breath with Finn Cole, Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu is now in theatres. And a German-language series on Apple TV+ surprises as a hit.It's no small feat to impress an audience with a medical drama because, let's face it, there's a lot of them. But nothing else has been able to capture this uneasy chaotic feeling that we get in Berlin ER. The German-language series is so gripping that you quickly feel incredibly invested in all its characters.
As co-creator and executive producer, ER doctor-turned-screenwriter Samuel Jefferson, highlighted to Yahoo Canada, there was an understanding that the medical cases of the patients in each episode were not going to be the core of the story, and that's part of what makes the show so interesting. The lives of the nurses, doctor and paramedics are what pull you in.
Berlin ER isn't your glossy, shiny, sterile medical drama. It's dark, gritty, devastating and stomach churning. While I also love The Pitt, Berlin ER impressed me even more.
If you're loving Aimee Lou Wood in The White Lotus right now, fill the days in between episodes with Toxic Town, also starring Doctor Who's Jodie Whittaker, and Bridgerton icon Claudia Jessie.
It's shocking, heart-wrenching and based on a real-life British scandal of mass poisoning in the steel town of Corby. It's been called "the British Erin Brockovich," with a group of mothers who gave birth to children with health issues confronting officials about management of toxic waste.
The performances, which you will expect with this cast, are impeccable, with the story effectively navigating disseminating the facts around this horrific scandal with these incredibly moving personal stories of its characters.
Last Breath is based on the true story of Chris Lemons, a deep sea saturation diver who, in 2012, experienced a freak accident that led to him being stuck under the sea, deprived of oxygen for 30 minutes.
Starring Finn Cole as Lemons, along with Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu, Last Breath proves that sometimes sticking to familiar beats in a film's construction, but executing it with attention to detail, can be just as interesting as a more original idea.
As someone who is claustrophobic and my worst fear is drowning, I have never felt so anxious and uncomfortable watching a movie. With the film's captivating cinematography, I felt the tension through the screen in a surprisingly impactful way.
Starring Julianne Nicholson, Eliza Scanlen, Umi Myers and Eilidh Fisher, Dope Girls fills a massive gap in entertainment. A post-World War One story focused on the women that were left without the men in their lives as they left for war. And Dope Girls isn't afraid to state the reality that, for some, their independence, and being able to take on jobs held by men, was a good thing.
I'm leaving room for improvement here because I haven't seen the whole series yet, just the first three episodes, but there's a great disruptive energy in the show, or as Nicholson described it, a "punk rock" way to tell this story.
The performances are strong, but I'm really just curious to see how all the moving parts come together in the show's remaining episodes, because I'm hooked.
This one hurts, because I deeply enjoy so many people in this series, stars like Kate Hudson, Brenda Song, Jay Ellis, and Max Greenfield, and co-creators Mindy Kaling, David Stassen and Ike Barinholtz. But this is a case of a show that's trying to do too much, drowning out the talent it has, and trying to force the comedy through when this entire cast can handle better material.
But I'm not completely ruling out more of this show. It has all the elements to be a great series, hopefully, if it continues, it can find its rhythm.